


Vijay

by Descended_from_Hufflepuffs



Series: Flower Tattoo Bois [2]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Falling In Love, First Love, First tattoos, Flashbacks, M/M, Past Relationships, Teasing, Trust Issues, high school romance awkwardness, strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24490162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Descended_from_Hufflepuffs/pseuds/Descended_from_Hufflepuffs
Summary: Malcolm Whitly has one (1) friend. He almost didn't.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo/Malcolm Bright, Malcolm Bright & Vijay Chandasara, Malcolm Bright/Vijay Chandasara
Series: Flower Tattoo Bois [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762771
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Vijay

Vijay was one of Malcolm's only friends. Well, his only friend by most standards but he considered some of his regulars to be friends at this point so there.

They'd met at private school at the corner table during lunch. Malcolm had sat there immediately, well aware of his father's reputation and how few favors that would do for his social life. Vijay took the effort of making the rounds, attempting to call on the friends he had just a few months ago. Sadly, his father's sentence had erased years of friendship so he found himself at Malcolm's table.

_ "Hey, mind if I sit here?" _

_ "...No…" _

They didn't talk much that first day, or the next day, or even the day after that. On the fourth day, Malcolm had his sketchbook out and was working on a detailed drawing of a hibiscus bush.  _ "For a friend." _

_ "That looks good. Really good.” _

_ “...Thanks.” _

That got them talking at least. The rest of the lunch period was filled with Malcolm rambling about different techniques and mediums and Vijay deciding that he liked it a lot when Malcolm smiled.

Talking about art turned to talking about classes. Talking about classes turning into studying together after school. Malcolm had a single room thanks to his night terrors and the Milton money, so it was a nice place to hang out even when they didn’t have much homework to do.

Eventually, they came around to talking about more personal things. Like Vijay's father being in prison and his mother helicopter parenting him from the other side of the world. Like Malcolm being the Surgeon's son and practically being chased out of his private school. Malcolm talked a little about his night terrors and Vijay shared some of his own nightmares.

One day they were hanging out in Malcolm's room after a test day, definitely not drinking alcohol that Vijay bribed some of the staff for because that would be illegal and their mothers would kill them for it, and laughing at some random story from earlier in the day. Malcolm had his sketchbook out for an art assignment,  _ Candid Life _ . It was due in a few days and he hadn't even started yet with all the studying he'd crammed in so he figured there was no putting it off any longer. He was just doing a few warm-ups drawings when he looked up and suddenly realized that Vijay looked very nice when he laughed and the sun looked even nicer on his hair and oh  _ fuck  _ was he very not straight.

_ “Can I draw you? For class, I mean.” _

_ “Sure thing, Whitly. How should I pose?” _

Malcolm went through several non-school approved poses in about five seconds before just telling him to do whatever felt natural. Vijay felt very natural telling stories which made it hard to get his mouth right but he didn’t care. He got to spend time staring at Vijay without being weird and this opened up the door to other modeling projects. Even after all his improvements over the years, he’s proud of this little portrait.

Neither of them were sure when it happened but at some point, they started dating. Holding hands at lunch, reading together in the quad, cuddling in Malcolm’s room until curfew hit. It all felt like a dream. Malcolm felt happy. Accepted. That’s when he got the idea for the tattoos. Something more tangible. Permanent.

_ “It’s called stick and poke. We don’t even have to sneak off campus to do it. I’ll tell mom the needles are for an art project. Our little secret?” _

_ “Sounds perfect.” _

It hadn’t even hurt that much. Three little words, right above their hip bones; easil hidden but always within reach. Vijay had made up a little nickname for them a few months before, not that it really caught on beyond them. But Malcolm didn’t care; it was another thing reserved just for them.  _ Corner Table Boys _ ….

Things were going so well, he didn’t even notice when it started to fall apart. Vijay’s dad got out of prison and suddenly he had friends again. He had less time for Malcolm, but that was okay. Boarding school was all about making connections and Vijay should make them while he still had the chance. So Malcolm let it slide when he missed study dates and even a few real ones. He chose to ignore how girls were pulling him away from their corner table. It was all just exciting right now he reasoned. Things would calm down soon and go back to normal.

Things did not go back to normal.

_ “What’s your deal Vijay?” _

_ “What’s my deal? What’s your deal?!” _

They were at a party Malcolm had let himself be dragged to. He didn’t like these people, didn’t like the way they looked at him. But they were Vijay’s friends and he would try because that’s what good boyfriends did.

_ “What are you talking about? I’m trying to be a good boyfriend and make nice with your friends and I get rewarded with you making out with someone else?!” _

_ “That’s not what it was, Malcolm….” _

He’d been ignoring it for so long. He’d wanted to. He didn’t want to acknowledge the truth, that Vijay was leaving him behind. He was no longer tainted goods but Malcolm still was. He always would be. Vijay wouldn’t have even looked his way if not for the circumstances.

_ “Well what was it then?! Testing a new dentist technique?!” _

_ “Look, our families are very close and-” _

_ “Are they now? ‘Cuz if I remember correctly she didn’t even look at you until a few weeks ago!” _

How could Vijay do this to him? After everything they did together. All the study dates. All the cuddling. All the makeout sessions. After the tattoos. After the nightmares. How could he go back to the people that shunned him for the sins of his father?

_ “Listen, Malcolm-” _

_ “No, you listen! I thought we were the Corner Table Boys! I thought you cared!” _

_ “I do!” _

_ “Then why are you going back to them? How can you go back after they abandoned you?” _

He didn’t understand. He would never understand. Years later even Vijay didn’t understand.

They broke up that night, both fuming. Malcolm started to break down after a few days. He missed his friend. He missed having a friend. It seemed Vijay wasn’t handling it well either because he got back to his dorm one day to find a very long apology letter taped on his door.

The next day, Vijay was sitting at their table again.

_ “...I’m sorry.” _

_ “Me too.” _

_ “Friends?” _

_ “Friends.” _

It took some time but they got back. They didn’t date again but they trusted each other. 

Trust that was being tested right now over their video call.

“Are you serious, Bright? You see your crush again for the first time in years and you barely get a lunch date out of him?”

“It’s not a date! We’re just...catching up.”

“But you want it to be a date.” Damn that smirk.

“Shut uuupppp,” Malcolm groaned, flopping back on his mattress. “What was I supposed to do? He’s just running his flower shop right down the street from me? Not exactly romantic.”

“Dude, it’s a flower shop. How is that not romantic?”

“I called you for advice, not observational humor.”

Vijay snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“Vijaaaaay….”

“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll be nice and help your disaster bisexual ass.”

“Thank you.”

“Just keep the lunch dates going for a while. Make it a regular thing. You guys spend more time together, he’ll realise how awesome you are, and then suddenly your dating and you have a cute flower shop boyfriend.”

Malcolm huffed. That was actually very helpful and very obvious and he can’t believe he didn’t see it sooner. “Okay. I’ll ask him out again when we wrap up tomorrow. Should I go for weekly or daily?”

“Shoot for weekly, let him work you up to daily.”

“That...sounds doable.” He smiled nervously. “God, I feel like a teenager again.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what all romance feels like.”

“Whatever. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“If you don’t tell me everything that happened, I will fly out there and personally kick your ass.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Mhmmm.” His phone binged in the background. “Gotta go. Business. Goodnight.”

“Night.”

He really should go to sleep; he had a lunch date to look good for. If only he could decide what to wear….


End file.
